


Victory

by gracethescribbler



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Epilogue, Force Ghost Anakin Skywalker, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Let Rex rest, Light Angst, Nostalgia, POV CT-7567 | Rex, Post-Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Remembering Anakin, ish, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:22:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24034234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gracethescribbler/pseuds/gracethescribbler
Summary: Rex visits Vader's pyre, after the Battle of Endor, and says goodbye.
Relationships: CT-7567 | Rex & Anakin Skywalker, CT-7567 | Rex & Luke Skywalker
Comments: 12
Kudos: 226





	Victory

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a result of watching the TCW finale yesterday and then Return of the Jedi today. I had a lot of feelings. Please leave a comment if you enjoy.

The kid was just like his father.

That was what Rex kept thinking, all through the final battle - how alike Luke (Luke _Skywalker)_ was to his father. General Solo and Princess Leia (who also looked familiar, talked like someone he used to know, and he wasn’t sure it was a coincidence) and Luke were reckless kids, seemed always two steps away from disaster, but it worked.

Rex had been around a long time, so he wasn’t surprised when they pulled the plan off. He’d heard enough about Luke Skywalker, he knew who his parents were - he was only surprised it took the Rebel Alliance as long as it did.

Now, late in the evening on Endor, the night air filled with the sounds of music and drums and cheering people, Rex left the other rebels celebrating. He knew that Darth Vader had been killed, and Luke had brought his body back - Luke had disappeared earlier in the evening, and Rex had watched him go.

Now, back from the festivities a way, amongst the bases of Endor’s massive trees, Rex found the pyre.

Flames still licked high at stacks of wood, at a bundled form, at the menacing mask and helmet. The person who had killed Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi, countless Jedi, Rex’s brothers. Vader.

In what little privacy the dark evening offered, Rex bowed his head, because there was no one else to remember what had been except for him, anymore. _Anakin Skywalker._ His General, somebody he would have called a brother, someone reckless and brave and loyal.

“It’s funny,” he says, to no one at all, “he’s a lot like you. I think you’d be proud.”

(He couldn’t know, even after so many years with the Jedi, that someone heard him. He couldn’t feel the hand that would’ve settled on his shoulder, something like an apology.)

He did hear footsteps, though, and turned, saw Luke stepping up beside him, something very like the famed Jedi serenity on his face. When he looked at Rex, though, he seemed a little more uncertain, careful.

“I know you fought in the Clone Wars,” he said, quietly. “Did you ever see my father then?”

Rex breathed a low chuckle and stared at the fire, feeling as if his age had caught up to him. “He was…” He looked at Luke, and didn’t think that the kid needed to hear a history lesson, or a bunch of titles that had long lost meaning to everyone else. “He was my brother,” he said. “I fought side by side with him through the whole war.”

Luke’s gaze was almost sharp, so Rex had to look away again. “He saved me, you know.”

“I didn’t.” Rex huffed, his throat closing up, although suddenly his chest felt warm, less pained. Somehow, it made sense. “I’m glad to hear it.”

There was the rustle of Luke shifting his weight, then, “Would you tell me about him?” small and hesitant.

Rex closed his eyes. There was too much he could say, so many memories all bright and hot but not so painful, these days, at the forefront of his mind. A war that was finally over, after well over twenty years, after so much loss he should have given up a long time ago. People used to say he was stubborn. He guessed this was probably why. But he’d made it. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, kid, I’ll tell you about him.”

It felt easiest to go back to the simple things.

His lightsaber was blue, and so were his eyes - same as Luke’s. He was stupid, and reckless, and he’d foisted his padawan off on Rex the first chance he got. He helped Rex save his brothers, and he was too sure of himself, and Rex told Luke what he himself had decided was certain.

“If he got to know you, Skywalker, he’d be proud.”

Luke stared straight ahead of him, past the pyre, a couple tears on his cheeks. “I know,” he said, Jedi-sure.

Rex nodded and looked ahead, too, at the trees and the sparks flying and the fireworks high above them where people were celebrating.

Grief and victory had always mixed together, for him. Now, though, he took a deep breath and let it out, feeling the weight on his shoulders ease.

_Anakin Skywalker._

_Nu kyr'adyc, shi taab'echaaj'la._

**Author's Note:**

> Nu kyr'adyc, shi taab'echaaj'la. = Not gone, merely marching far away.


End file.
